The Truth About Katie Bell
by Only Sometimes
Summary: All Alicia Spinnet wanted to find was the Katie Bell she had always known. She never thought she'd find the unexpected truths.
1. The Annual Game

Hello, all. I'm branching out, and writing with new characters! Weee!

Reviews are welcome, along with constructive criticism.

And for the record, as you all should know, I don't own this wizarding world. Yet...

* * *

"All right, so I'll play Keeper, and Ron will play Keeper, Harry can be Seeker along with Ginny, and then Angelina, Alicia and Dean can be Chasers, and that leaves Fred and George as the two Beaters." Oliver decided, his thick Scottish accent not able to hide his glee. Despite having graduated years ago and playing quidditch professionally, Oliver Wood was still the Gryffindor captain at heart. 

"Two problems with what you just said," Fred started, "Ginny keeps saying she won't play, and Katie isn't here." George finished.

"I never said I won't play, I said I can't!" Ginny shot in, a bit annoyed.

"Why can't you? Did you forget your broom?"  
"No--"  
"Are you injured?"  
"No--"  
"Did you forget how?"  
"No!"  
"Do you suddenly hate it?"  
"NO! I'm--"  
"Ginny, I believe I speak for both my twin and myself when I say we're sick of your exscuces." Fred finally finished. He and George looked satisfied with the large amount of frustration they had brought upon their little sister.

"You know what, you tell them, I'm gonna go sit over there with Hermione." an exasperated Ginny instructed Harry. She then marched over to the seating where Hermione was currently perched, ready to watch the annual quidditch game.

The group had started meeting back at the familiar old quidditch pitch two years ago, after the war had finally ended. It was Oliver's old quidditch team, plus Dean, and they had been meeting the first Saturday of every month since. It wasn't the classic game, rules had to bend and no one, minus Oliver, seemed to take it especially seriously. Hermione had been coming to see Ron, which usually made him more nervous than he'd like to admit, despite their engagement.

Ron, Fred, and George all peered a curious eye over at the boy their baby sister had just spoken to.

"Harry," Ron started, his word dragging, "why can't Ginny fly?"

"Uh..." Harry started, taking a deep breath, "We're getting married." he finished in a rush. The twin's eyes went big.

"Why?" Ron demanded, while the rest of the goup sat back to watch what was about to happen.

"Because it seems that Ginny and I...are going to be parents."

"Ginny can't be pregnant! She's twelve!" Fred insisted.

"When did she turn twelve? I thought she was nine!" George shot back, while Ron kept getting paler and paler.

"I thought we were here to play quidditch!" Oliver finally hollored, sick of waiting for the big dramatic family moment to be over. It was an awkward game, since Oliver wasn't quite sure how he felt about Dean having never played with him against a real team and the Weasley's going through mood swings of having a sudden urge to harm Harry, which quickly changed to feeling the need to protect the father of their future niece or nephew.

The game was lopsided, since it had been decided that Harry would be his own team. If he got the snitch before one of the other teams had 150 points, he won. He won. Of course.

"Ginny, how old are you, anyways?" Alicia asked as the very exhausted quidditch players cooled down with Ginny and Hermione, who seemed quite happy just chatting.

"Twenty-one." she calmly answered, and the faces of just about everyone went into processing mode, trying to figure out if she was telling the truth by doing math on their fingers.

"That means Harry's twenty-two,"

"And so are Ron and Hermione."

"Which makes Alicia and Angelina twenty-four."

"Along with the twins,"

"And Oliver, that old man, is twenty-six!"

"And Katie's...twenty-four?"  
"No, she's a year younger."  
"Twenty-three?"

"I guess she is."

There was a moment of more thinking, while Dean tried to figure out how to graciously leave since he was in no need to talk about a girl he had only seen in passing or at the annual game.

"When was the last time any of you saw Katie?" Dean finally asked, trying to remember what the girl looked like.

"Well, she's missed the past three games." Oliver muttered under his breath.

"I suppose it's been three months." Alicia realized, surprised at this.

"Has it really been that long?" George asked, surprised that his girlfriend had gone so long since speaking to one of her best school friends. His twin eyed his girlfriend, the ever beautiful Angelina, sharing the same thing.

"Y'know, Lee asked about this a few days ago." Fred suddenly remembered.

"So, today we all decided that none of us have seen Katie for three months and we aren't sure how old she is. Wow, I'm glad I call you people friends." Hermione commented, which caused an awkward laughter afterwards.

"I suppose we should just go get cleaned up." Harry decided as he looked at his teammates. Most were mud covered, or just sweaty. They were at the school, after begging McGonagall for quite some time, they had gotten her to agree to let them use the quidditch pitch. The group began walking towards the familiar showers, making fun of Oliver for all the times it had been too painful to make it to the showers after one of his infamous practices.

The group passed one of the more deteriated walls that seemed to be neglected by Filch and all others who looked up on it, and for some reason this made Ginny laugh a bit.

"What's so funny?" Dean asked, happy that a conversation could be started that involved something other than memories he didn't have.

"It's just a strange little memory, and I never would have thought of it if Katie hadn't been brought up earlier," Ginny said, smiling a bit as she stopped and stared at one of the more unattractive walls. "When I was in my second year I had this really bad week, I mean terrible. And Katie noticed this one Saturday, and brought me to this wall to make feel better.""How'd she do that?" Oliver asked, a small smile on his face as he thought of the sweet girl who everyone had assured him had the biggest crush on him.

"She gave me some Fire Whiskey and taught me how to smoke."

That stopped the very air around them.

"Are you sure it was Katie?" Fred questioned.

"And not some other quidditch player?" George continued.

"Oh, positive. I remember because she was this cool older girl, a fourth year, and she drank about half the bottle without even getting tipsy. I was shocked." Ginny grinned.

"Are you sure?" Alicia questioned one more time.

"Still am. It was so strange. I mean, Filch caught us, and all he did was refill his flask and walk away. It seemed that he had set up a little deal with her."

"Why didn't you tell any of us before?" Harry asked. It was the question on everyone's mind.

"Would you believe me?" Ginny questioned back, wondering if her confession was the right thing to do.

"I still don't." Oliver decided, and he seemed to speak for the whole group judging by the group nod that followed.

Everyone except Alicia, who had the strangest feeling in the pit of her stomach that she believed Ginny.


	2. Acting On Impulse

I have time, so here's a chapter, mmkay? Yes. Do enjoy it, will you?

* * *

"I'll catch up with you at home, okay George?" Alicia said as the group made their way out of the locker room. Showered and in clean clothes, all except Ginny and Hermione, most were worn out from the game. 

"Okay, but where are you going?" George asked, wondering what he would do in their flat alone. He had never been left alone for long, partly because he was usaually at work on the shops while Alicia worked from home as an increasingly popular children's book writer, and partly because George really wasn't trusted.

"I'm just gonna go to look around for a bit. It's been awhile, you know?" she answered, surprised that she lied so easily.

"That's all well and good, 'Lic, but you were here a month ago." Fred teased.

"Yeah, yeah," Alicia joked back, smiling.

Alicia didn't know what she was doing, but she knew it had something to do with walking into the school, away from her friends, towards the castle. To look for the most feared squib to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts...

Argus Filch. He wasn't too hard to find, lurking at a corner on the third floor, just waiting for a student to run. His job was more difficult now, at least when it came to catching students, since the loss of his beloved cat.When Alicia saw him, just standing there, she almost felt bad for him. He looked so lonely, just lurking by himself with no one to mumble curse words under his breath to.

"Filch?" _what am I doing? What am I doing?_

"What are you doing out of class? Get outta here!" Filch barked at Alicia, barely looking at her.

"I'm not a student, but thanks for the mistake, I graduated a few years ago. I'm a writer now, and I have a few questions for you. About another student." _What am I doing? What am I doing?_

"I've seen a lot o' students, you'll need to do better than that. If you're capable of it."

"Okay, her name was Katie Bell. She graduatated not too long ago, and she kept your flask full." _So that's what I'm doing. _

Filch nodded, his filthy hair moving with each bob of his head.

"That girl," he paused, looking Alicia in the eye for the first time since she could remember. "That girl I remember."

And then he started walking away.

"Wait!" Alicia yelled, urgency in her voice. "I need to talk to you!" this was probably the first time anyone truly needed anyhting from Argus Filch. "I need to know everything you know about Katie."

"Why?" his voice was gruff, and his eyes were suspicious. And crinkly.

"Because Katie's my friend, and I barely know her, and I'm scared of what I might find out, but I'm terrified of not knowing." Alicia spilled, not able to believe that she was spilling her guts to Filch of all people.

"All right then." Filch started, taking out his flask and taking a swig. Alicia found herself wondering how many other students had refilled it besides Katie.

Filch made his way over to an old bench that had been in the same hall on the third floor of Hogwarts since the school was built, but was so stony and uncomftorable that no one sat on it except Filch. Alicia followed, sitting on the opposite side of Filch so that she could look at him, and hear him, but not really be near him.

"Bell was first out there at her wall in her first year, when she was supposed to be scared o' me. She wadn't. When I caught her, Fire Whiskey in one hand, fag in the other, she just kinda looked at me like this was supposed to be normal. It wasn't. Usually yah little brats didn't get the balls to do that 'till yer fifth year, or later with some. But not Bell, she was all ready out there."

"So that's why you remember her? She was so young?" Alicia asked, anxious for an answer, and Filch gave her a look that seemed to growl at her impatience.

"She was also different in other ways. She was there consistantly, and almost always alone. No friends, that one. But what's really weird, is her third year."

"She got noticably worse?" Alicia asked, her anxiousness getting the better of her yet again.

"Nah, stranger. She wadn't out there. She had nothing to fill my flask with. No fags to smoke. She wadn't a good kid all of a sudden, that's for damn sure, she wasn't out there."

"Where was she?"  
"You said you were her friend, you should know."  
"But I don't, so tell me!"  
"Why don't you just ask her yourself? I'm done here."

With those friendly parting words, Filch stomped off, looking for a current student to catch in the act of not being perfect like requested. Or just looking like he had the potential to cause trouble. Or just being unlucky enough to bump into Filch between classes.

_That's what I'll do, I'll just go to Katie's and talk to her, _Alicia's rational side told her. Alicia tried to explain all her new information as she walked to Hogsmeade so she could apparate. A wide range of explanations made their way into to her mind, some almost reasonable, others not even close to being plausable.

It was some other girl, everyone was mistaken.

She did it, but was under the Imperious curse.

She wasn't as frequent as Filch thought, it was a random thing.

It's a big joke being pulled on Alicia, by Katie. Elaborate, but effective.

Alicia was finally away from the school, in a safe place to Apparate, and with a blink she was gone. Gone to miles away, to Katie's building, on the front steps. It didn't seem like anyone saw her, since Katie lived on a street that was so busy that mistakes could easily be made and muggles would just assume that they hadn't seen the person before, not that they had appeared out of nowhere.

Alicia tried to buzz in, leaving her finger on the small button that read the words "Bell, K." that would supposedly grant her entrance into the home of the elusive Katie Bell.

As she waited, Alicia thought. She tried to think about the last time she had visited Katie at her studio loft, but was drawing a blank. She only remembered the address because she and George had sent out Christmas cards the previous December. Humorous ones that had a picture of the happy couple, George wrapped in a box and Alicia looking surprised. Mr. Weasley had loved it, and Mrs. Weasley had been sure it was all George's idea. She was right.

"Can I help you?" Alicia jumped at the unfamiliar voice, but it wasn't coming from the little button she had been violating for quite some time now. It was from a short little woman with dark hair shaped perfectly like a Mary Tyler Moore knock off do, and coke bottle glasses resting on a knobby little nose.

"Yes, I was just trying to see my friend Katie. Katie Bell." Alicia quickly said, trying not to stare at the little elf like woman.

"Haven't seen her for months. I'm the land lady, Heloise. Come! I'll take you up!" the small, apparently named Heloise, lady declared.

Alicia followed her through a small lobbly like room that held where all the mail slots for the tenants. From what she could see, Katie's only had junk mail in it.

"Haven't seen Katie for three months." Heloise stated for the second time, now in a cramped elevator that was taking the pair up. "She paid her rent for six months, it runs out soon. You interested in a studio flat?"

"Oh, no, I just want to find Katie."

"It's strange, the way she just vanished, but I ask no questions!"

"Was she a good tenant?"  
"The best. Always paid on time, never complained, no problems with neighbors. But you can still have her flat if she's disapeared."

The elevator thankfully opened, and Heloise opened the door to Katie's flat for Alicia. She didn't ask questions about who Alicia was, didn't seem concerned if she was a thief or anything. Alicia made up her mind right then that she would never live in a building owned by this Heloise creature.

Katie's studio flat would have been cramped if it had more furniture. A small tv that looked unused sat in the corner, with a single lounge chair in front of it. In the corner of a room was a dresser and a bed, unmade. A bathroom was off to the side, but Alicia really didn't check there. The kitchen was in the back, and from the looks of it, empty food wise.

The walls were plain red brick with no pictures, and only a few windows. One window was opened, where Katie's black and white tuxedo cat, Celia, was perched. On the floor in front of her sat a water bowl and food dish, both magically set to replenish and a self cleaning litter box.

"Hello, Celia. Can you tell me where Katie is?" Alicia mumbled to herself more than the cat.

She got a mew in return despite this.

Working her way through the small home, Alicia stopped and looked at the only picture in the whole place. Sitting on and table, in a plain frame, was a picture of Katie and Celia. Celia seemed quite unamused by the idea of a picture, but Katie had a smile.

Her dark almond shaped eyes crinkled, as her dark brown hair fell into them, and her oval shaped face seemed even more golden brown than usual. She wore make up, as usual, this time taking care to accent her high cheekbones. Alicia studied the picture carefully, thinking about how pretty Katie looked in that picture.

That was the prettiest she had looked in a long time, in this photo that looked like she took it herself. Out of instinct, Alicia slid the photo out of the frame and put in her purse.

It was that same instinct that caused her to pick up Celia, and Katie's left out address book, and walk out of the flat to her home a few blocks away.

She didn't know what she was doing or how she was going to explain the sudden pet adoption to George.


	3. The Peanut Gallery

I probably shouldn't update...it won't be long before I run out of written chapters...

Oh well. People are reading and (hopefully) enjoying. I'll just quit doing homework. Yes, that sounds nice.

* * *

"Now, not that I'm above saying this in a dirty way, but are you coming to bed?" George almost begged, but Alicia remained where she was, only giving her poor boyfriend a look of sympathy, as she continued typing away. 

She was working on her old typewriter, which looked as if it had survived several World Wars. It probably had, Alicia had found it a rummage sale just a few weeks after graduating and discovered that it was her muse. On it she had written several children's books aimed at you witches and wizards, two of which had already been published and a third was in the works.

"Okay, 'Lic, what exactly are you doing?" George finally asked, sitting down on the couch that was in front of the coffee table that held the beloved type writer.

"Well, I think I'm my own private investigator." Alicia stated, as she slid another piece of paper in.

"Are you setting up a case of someone's missing cat? Because I'm pretty sure I know who the perp is."

"I told you, that's our cat for the time being. It is Katie's cat, her name is Celia, and until Katie gets back, we're going to spoil her."

"So you're investigating for the sake of the cat, Celia?""No, I'm investigating for the fact that Katie is my friend, your friend, our friend. And the fact that she is missing and we are all worried."  
"Call me selfish, but right now I'm worried that it's two thirty AM, and I have work in six hours, yet I am sitting on the couch talking to my crazy, typing girlfriend."

"I'm going to bed, don't worry." Alicia answered, her hands still on the keys.

"Yes, you are." George decided, lifting her hands off the keys and leading her into their bedroom, all under the watchful eyes of Celia who sat on the fire place mantel, pleased with how high up she was.

"Celia, it's the crack of ten in the morning, why are you on my head?" Alicia mumbled into her pillow. She had successfully slept through George getting up and leaving, and his vicious opening of the curtains, but the cat on the head would not do.

So she gave in, and got out of bed, cursing the entire time. These were not the words of a children's book author.

After a bleary eyed breakfast, Alicia made her way to the shower, where she found out that Celia enjoyed slapping the water without warning and scaring Alicia awake.

"Fine! You have my attention! I'm awake! What? What do you want?" Alicia demanded from the cat. The cat merely stalked off, no longer interested in the havoc she had brought upon poor Alicia.

"Let's see, what are you hiding Katie? Ah, this could be quite useful." Alicia muttered to herself, as if she were talking directly to her friend. She had picked up the address book she swiped and opened it to the front page, hoping for inspiration. Inspiration ended up staring her right in the face.

'Mum and Dad--121 Walnut Dr.' blared a purple post it. Alicia knew Walnut Dr, it was in a newer area of houses where all the streets were named after different types of nuts. She and George had a field day making fun of that.

'Off to the Peanut Gallery, won't be long, don't do any experiments the cat. Looooooove, Alicia.' Alicia scribbled down on a note, left to hopefully be found by George before any serious damage was done to Celia.

And with that, she grabbed her jacket, warned the cat and was out the door.

Alicia soon found herself in row after row of little stone, grey nestled behind white picket fences. There was really no need to think of all those clever nut street names, each house looking identical. It was the perfect place to keep up appearances, but more magical, as long as no one flaunted the magic. Or the wealth they all knew each neighbor had. The whole place was a slice of humble pie, smothered in the best life chocolate sauce.

So all Alicia had to do was smoothe out her clothes, fix up her hair, and put on a big 'I'm on your side' smile as she walked up the walkway to 121 Walnut Dr.

"Can I help you?" a tall, older woman inquired, answering Alicia's knock as she opened her door. Her clothes were a bit too starched, her auburn hair a little too neat, and her blue eyes a little too...not bright enough.

"Yes, hi, I'm Alicia. Spinnet. I played quidditch with Katie and I was wondering if you could ask you a few questions about her." Alicia grinned, smiling and looking as trustworthy as possible.

"I think I've met you, at one of the quidditch battles or whatever...why are you asking about Katie?" the woman wasn't exactly warm and comforting with a glow of maternal instinct.

"Well, I write children's books and I was hoping you could give me some stories about Katie, or from our quidditch days that I'm yet to remember that I could use." Alicia's explanation came out smiley and trustworthy, even the ice queen Mrs. Bell was buying it.

"All right, come in."

Alicia followed to woman through an immaculate home, which Alicia had trouble believing was actually live in. It looked as if it was a model home, with perfectly white carpets and more pictures of flowers on the walls than family. The two perched on a white couch that was too stiff to be comftorable by anyones taste, but looked good.

"Well, I don't know how Katie acted at school, but at home, she was nothing but trouble. She smoked, she drank, she stayed out all night, she was impossible to talk to. I was right not want to want her." Mrs. Bell stated, her perfectly manicured nails waving in the air to accent her distaste of her daughter. This woman was not one for small talk.

"You told her you didn't want her?" Alicia asked, her eyes wide, she had a feeling that Mrs. Bell wasn't the most nurturing mother, but that was unexpected.

"Of course! I'm no liar. It was the only way to keep that girl in her place, for the most part, and believe me, if Katie was your daughter, you would have felt the same way."

Alicia nodded, but had a feeling she wouldn't have agreed at all.

"And of course, there was her third year...that gave me a few grey hairs." Mrs. Bell sniffed.

"What happened her third year?" Alicia tried to not seem so interested, but it wasn't happening.

"Darling! I'm home!" a male voice hollered from the front of the house, working his way to where Mrs. Bell and Alicia sat. It was Mr. Bell, a man on the short side, with once blonde hair turned to grey, and large dark eyes. "Oh, hello, I didn't know we had a guest." Mr. Bell grinned.

"Hi, Mr. Bell, I was just hear to get a few stories about Katie..." Alicia's voice trailed off, as she watched Mr. Bell's friendly grin fade away and Mrs. Bell's sharp eyes turn away from her husband.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here, I'll gladly tell you the truth about my little girl."

"I'll just go get some tea ready." Mrs. Bell said stiffly, and Mr. Bell gladly took her seat on the uncomftorable couch. He wasn't nearly as formal as his wife, lounging down, and loosening in the top of his work robes.

"Katie did get in some trouble, at home, but you knew her at school, she was a good girl. And one hell of a quidditch player, could have been captain, but she turned it down her seventh year." Mr. Bell bragged.

"I didn't know that." Alicia commented, surprised that someone as dedicated as Katie would turn down the captian position.

"Yeah, she wasn't sure how she'd do, so she decided that she really didn't want to risk messing up the team. She's a good kid. No matter how much trouble she got in at home, she was always good in school. That takes work."

"Your wife was just saying something about trouble in the third year?"

"Tea's ready!" Mrs. Bell cut in, "I'm sorry Alicia, but we only have enough for two."

Mr. Bell gave the young woman a mournful look as he silently walked her to to the door, much to Alicia's frustration.

"Thanks for your help." Alicia muttered, even though she barely meant it.


	4. Sister

I think this story is coming along nicely. And I enjoy writing about George as a supportive boyfriend. He's sweet.

* * *

"We need to go see your parents!" Alicia sobbed as soon as George walked through the door. She stood with Celia in her arms, her clothes baggy and comftorable, and her hair up in a messy pony tail. 

"Why? What's wrong?" George asked, panic in his eyes and voice.

"Katie has horrible parents and you don't! I want to go see my parents, but they're in Tibet!" Alicia cried out.

"Okay, now take a deep breathe and tell me everything." George cooed, putting his arms around his sobbing girlfriend.

"I went to see Katie's parents, and her mum's all stiff, and she didn't even want Katie and she told that to Katie, and the house was so clean and neat, it was scary! And her dad had no real idea who his daughter is, and I don't think they've talked to her in years! It's horrible! I need your mum."

"_You_ are very dramatic. I'll go call Mum using that new sellyourown telly phone Dad got all of us."

Alicia nodded and sat down on her wonderfully cushy couch as she pouted over her mother and father having too much time on their hands after retiring and feeling the need to go to Tibet when Alicia was in dire need of a mother's hug.

"Okay, love, get up, we're going over for dinner at Mum and Dad's, and Dad hinted that more than one brother and spouse/significant other would be there. You could girl talk and be all family oriented and forget all about Katie." George said, his intentions were good, they really were, and all of this would have gone smoothely if he had left off that last part.

After a great deal of work, Alicia stopped sobbing enough to say the Burrow clearly. George showed up, right after his red nosed, puffy eyed, nearly hysterical girlfriend.

"Alicia, dear, how are y--What's wrong?" Molly asked as she greeted the girl who she hoped would be daughter in law so at least one twin would not be living in sin.

"This house is so, so messy!" Alicia sobbed, and the first thing George saw when he showed up back home, was his girlfriend, crying on his miffed mother.

"George, what did you do to her?" Molly demanded as soon as her son showed himself.

"It wasn't me! She came home like this!" George claimed.

"Home from where? The doctor? Is she pregnant? Are you pregnant?" Molly demanded, asking that last question to Alicia.

"No! She's not pregnant! Is she?" George asked back, suddenly full of fear.

Alicia was too hysterical to answer at the time, so she just let George and his mother panic as the rest of the Weasley clan arrived.

By the time Alicia had calmed down a bit, as in her face was in her hands and her sobs were managable, it had been decided that she was not only pregnant, but expecting twin girls that would have the red hair, but otherwise look just like Alicia.

"I think she's calmed down to talk to..." Ron nervously commented, looking at Alicia with saucer like eyes as he spoke.

"Alicia, what's wrong?" Hermione gently asked, she had ended up being the one sitting closest to the sobbing mess."

"I'b a hobbibibbe powsin." Alicia sobbed into her hands.

"What?" countless voices wondered out loud, not sure what had been said.

"She said she's a horrible person." Hermione answered, which was returned with looks of confusion. "I have a very emotional cousin, I can understand sobs."

"Bet she's fun to hang out with." Fred commented.

"Oh, he's a real ball." Hermione answered, ignoring the looks the 'he' comment brought her.

"Alicia, sweetie, you're not hobbibibbe person," George cooed, trying to comfort her, but failing miserably as she cried harder. "What? What did I do?"

"Alicia, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, in a much more comforting fashion that George's attempt. "Did you fight with a relative or something? Don't you have a half sister?"

"I--I--need to go." Alicia stuttered, as she stood up and walked in a hurry towards the door.

"Go? I thought she was upset." Ron murmered, not sure how to react to what was going on.

"Alicia--" George called out.

"I'll see you at home, I have to go, bye!" Alicia yelled as she walked out of Burrow.

"That girl is definitely pregnant." Molly muttered, nodding to herself. George went pale.

Before anyone had a chance to look outside the door Alicia ran through, she had apparated home.

"Celia, where is that address book I stole from Katie?" Alicia asked the less than interested cat, as she searched through the small, and already cluttered flat.

"You could answer instead of just stare, y'know." Alicia scoffed at the cat. She didn't get as much as a 'mew' in response. After thirty minutes of searching, and jumping at every noise thinking it was George there to question her about her strange behavior, Alicia found the address book. Under Celia.

"Now, I'm going to go, so when George gets back, you give him some made up excuse about me going to the doctor or something, but don't make it something strange!" Alicia ordered the cat, who seemed relatively pleased with herself as Alicia ran out of another door.

Alicia looked at the names on the mail slot, one more time. It would have been too good to be true. The names listed for Katies sisters apartment, Cahill, Rick and Emily, Bell, K.

That would explain it. Katie moved in with her sister, Emily. Emily was much older than Katie, she had left Hogwarts before Katie had even started, and had gotten married so her name was different, and no one knew to look for Katie here. That was what happened. It made so much sense, it had to be what happened.

"I'm going to find Katie, everything's going to be normal, and life will be simple." Alicia smugly told herself as she rode a rickety old elevator up to the third floor, where she knew she would find Katie.

Her confidence level was through the roof as she knocked on the door to the flat that surely held all the answers she needed.

"Can I help you?" a politer versoin of Mrs. Bell answered. She had the same auburn hair and blue eyes, but the hair was messier, more human, and the eyes had some sparkle behind them.

"Yes, you're Emily right? I'm Alicia Spinnett, I played quidditch with Katie at Hogwarts." Alicia stated, not waiting for as much of a nod to the Emily question.

"Oh, " Emily breathed out, her brow furrowed with confusion.

"Is Katie here?" Alicia asked, peeking around Emily's shoulder into the apartment.

"No..."

"When will she be here?"

"I don't know..."

"Isn't she the Bell, K. on the mail slot?"

Emily paused, taking a deep breath, before answering. "You'd better come in, we have a lot to talk about."


	5. A Gentle Smile

Did I take too long? To update? I apologize

* * *

The Cahill flat was much nicer on the inside than the hallway where Alicia had been standing. The walls had been painted, the furniture refurbished, no doubt with the help of magic, and it was all very homey. 

"You look so much like your mum, I wasn't worried that I had come to the wrong flat at all," Alicia said, trying to make conversation as she and Emily made their way to the couch.

Emily smiled politely as they walked by a row of pictures. Alicia paused and stared at one, her breathing becoming rampant. She was looking at a smiling, young Katie, minus the deep brown eyes and chestnut hair. This girl had dark eyes, much darker than Katie's and her hair was almost black.

"Oh, Merlin. That's--oh, Merlin." Alicia muttered.

"Didn't you know?" Emily questioned, her eyes even brighter with surprise.

Alicia dumbly shook her head, as Emily guided her to the couch.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning." Emily sighed as the two sat. She took a deep breath and began.

"Katie isn't my blood sister, she was adopted when she was five. It was my dad's idea, my mum wasn't thrilled and she let Katie know. You see, my dad was sure that Katie would overcome her past and be this golden girl, perfect in everyone's eyes. My mum was sure that Katie would end up like her birth parents.

"I guess it's understandable, what Katies Mum and Dad did, but at the same time not. They were both from Ravenclaw, and they married right out of school and had Katie a few years later. Only, they named her Katerina. They were Kosey and Kelene Nochiviscoff. He was Russian, she was Greek. This was in the time when he-who-must-not-be named was at full power, and Kosey got scared. He decided, in order to protect his family, that they would be Death Eaters, but not really. Spies, almost, except without any plans to actually help either side.

"At first things were fine, they were never called upon to do anything, and nothing bad was happening. Then they were called upon to go to meetings, which Kosey tried to be careful about. But something he never saw coming happened, Kelene got into it. I mean, _really _into it. Dark Mark and everything.

"It soon leaked that the Nochiviscoffs were Death Eaters, when Katie was about two and a half and Kelene was full fledged Death Eater and Kosey had lost control. No one knows for sure, but I think he's the one who turned them in, trying to help Katie get away before it was too late. Kelene was sent to Azkaban, screaming about filthy mudbloods as they dragged her away, and Kosey hanged himself before his trial.

"Dad desperately wanted to adopt Katie right away, he had known Kosey and Kelene in school, he knew that they weren't bad, just scared. He was convinced that Katie would be okay, if raised right. She was barely talking when all this happened, only muttering unforgivable curses under her breath. Her parents had obviously been too busy trying to save her to actually raise her. Mum was convinced that nothing could be done to save the girl and she would be a waste. So, she went into foster care for about 2 1/2 years, until Mum finally broke down and let Dad adopt her. I don't know how he talked her into it, but he did. And that's how she became Katie Bell."

"Katie never said anything about being adopted...but then again, why would she?" Alicia gave a little bitter laugh at that. "I suppose there's quite a bit more I don't know about her, then?" she looked back at the photo she had been gaping at earlier as she asked.

"Her third year. Mum flipped out, Dad cried. She never did say who the father is." Emily, smiled a bit, feeling some pride at the heart her younger sister had.

"Is she Bell, K.?"

"Yep, Kamryn Bell. Katie named her, and then asked me to raise her. I can't imagine having a baby at fourteen, yet she did."

"Fourteen? That would make it her third year...she was still playing quidditch! I didn't even notice a change in her size! Did she use a a concealing spell?"

"I doubt it. I think she just hid it well. Mum and Dad didn't even know she was expecting until the end of the summer, when she had Kamryn. She left for Hogwarts two weeks later, after asking that I'd watch her. She never cried, she always kept her strong face on."

"She didn't cry? Katie was always emotional! That's what made her so fun! She was overdramatic, it was hilarious. You should have heard her go off after quidditch practice, nearly talked our captain's ear off more times than I can count."

Emily gave another sweet little smile before saying, "That's because you knew Hogwarts Katie, and I knew Home Katie."

"Hogwarts Katie?" Alicia questioned, her memories going back to the most disturbing conversation in the history of speaking she'd had with Filch.

"At school, Katie acted like the angel Dad had hoped for. At home, she was exactly what Mum had expected. She'd stay out all night, party, come home drunk, and fight. She was a real laugh, actually. And, of course, that was the time she got pregnant and didn't tell anyone."

"Did Katie just...leave Kamryn with you?" Alicia nervously questioned.

"You mean abandon her? No, not really. She was visiting every couple weeks up to a few months ago. I'm getting worried about her."

"How'd she manage coming every couple weeks?"

"Hogsmeade weekends, she'd come here right after, usually with some gift for Kamryn."

"I always thought she met up with another group of friends..." Alicia thought out loud.

"Katie had a way of slipping in and out between your fingers without you even noticing she was in your hands to begin with." Emily commented, nodding as she visited memories Alicia could only wonder about.

"Do you have any information about her past? Like when she was in foster care?" Alicia quietly asked, hoping she hadn't pushed Emily too far, but at the same time wildly dreaming that all her questions would be answered.

Emily didn't say anything, but got up, looking for something on a bookshelf. She turned around, and handed a small red book to Alica. In gold the words "Property of Katie Jane Bell" with loops and sparkle made the cover fancy.

"It was her diary. I never could read it after she left it here, after her last visit." Emily smiled. She was always smiling, a gentle smile, and Alicia was about to protest, but then the door opened.

A tall man with spikey hair and a fashionably oversized jacket walked in with the girl from the picture. She looked about ten years old, with overly curious eyes that were able to bore right through Alicia as soon as they fell on her.

"Hi, I'm Rick." the man grinned, extending his hand. Alicia had of course figured that out already, and was too busy staring back at the little girl to really think about being polite.

"Alicia," she mumbled, "it was nice meeting you." she managed to get out, but then she was out the door.

She couldn't stand not knowing everything.


	6. Two am

My school is having a snow day. The snow already melted. Actually, it all melted before noon. Just thought you should know.

* * *

"Aliiiiiicia," George groggily complained from the pillow on his head, "go to sleep." 

It was nearing two am, and Alicia still had the diary Emily had practicly forced on her, and after about fifteen minutes of deliberation, she had opened the book.

"Shhhh," Alicia hissed, her face moving closer to the book, not believing what she was reading.

There were gaps between entries, and obvious information missing. But she miraculously wrote down plenty of details of her foster home. She hadn't moved around, which some would call lucky, but from the sound of the house, Katie wasn't. She called it the Pink Rot, and as she described it, pink on the outside, rotting on the inside. She only consitantly mentioned one name from the house, besides the Mother, was Jordan. Jordan's address wasn't mentioned, and neither were any really details. Merely "Jordan and I did this..." or "Jordan and I did that..." This and that tended to be illegal, but described as quite fun.

"What are you reading?" George mumbled, lifting up his head, and looking at the book, squinting the in light.

"Nothing." Alicia answered, anxiously turning the page to find out more. The entries were vague, talking of wild parties and the many males that came with them.

"Is that what I think it is?" Goerge questioned, his eyes finally adjusting to the light.

"No!" Alicia insisted, pulling the diary out of the reach of him.

"You're reading Katie's diary! You are!" this woke George right up, making him as awake as Alicia.

"So?" Alicia hissed, still not letting George see the book.

"When Fred and I tried reading her diary in school, it was nothing but boring dribble."

"That's because she had a decoy, she told us after she saw the two of you looking at it. She thought it was hilarious."

"Nu uh."  
"Yeah huh."  
"Nu uh!"  
"Yeah huh!"

"Prove it!"  
"Look, it mentions it here!" Alicia insisted, rapidly flipping pages back to prove that she was right and thrusting it in the face of George.

Who grabbed the diary, and jumped out of the bed, running out of the room. Alicia took off after him, not believing that she had just fallen for that trick.

"What are you gonna do to get it back?" George taunted, standing up on their couch in the living room. Very mature.

"I'm gonna go make eggs." Alicia replied, walking away as if she were not in fact being torn apart at the moment dying to know what Katie had been up to.

"Naked?" George asked, his eyebrows going up as he stepped off the couch towards the kitchen where Alicia stood, winking at him.

Twenty minutes later, now missing every stitch of clothing, George and Alicia heard a high pitched ringing sound.

"What is that?" Alicia asked, looking up, her brow furrowed.

"I think it's that sell-your-own telly fone Dad got us all for Christmas..."

"You'd better go get it."

"Woman, you cannot be serious."

"It's two thirty in the morning! There has to be a good reason for calling!"

"Yes! Someone's rude and doesn't deserve to talk to me!"

"Go!"

George less than happily got up and went for his cellular, or as he thought it was called, sell-your-own telly fone, as Alicia pulled on a few more clothes than nothing.

Once a bit more acceptable, she followed after George, who seemed to be having a difficult time conversing with whoever had called.

"Please! Calm down! _PLEASE_!" He was yelling into the phone, and Alicia could hear a muffled voice crying hystericly into the phone.

'Who is it?" Alicia mouthed, but was only given a raised finer of waiting.

"Mum, put Dad on the phone!" George kept insisting.

"Put some clothes on!" Alicia hissed, hoping that her hissing wouldn't be heard.

"Why?" George demanded, covering the mouth piece.

"Because you're talking to your mum! She'll know!"

"What?--fine, bring me some pants."

Alicia wandered back into the kitchen, wondering which Weasley had gotten poor Molly so upset, yet having a feeling that she already knew. It took some time, but Alicia eventually found George's pajama pants on top of the fridge. It took even more time for her to get the pants down from the fridge, but after some crafty cabinet climbing, it all worked out.

"Okay, Dad, we'll be there." Alicia heard George finish on the telly fone.

"We'll be where?" she asked, tossing him ihis pants, which gained her a cheeky grin.

"At a brunch at my parents tomorrow. Mum was in hysterics because Ginny and Harry finally broke the news of my poor, innocent sister being deflowered by that wicked boy."

Much to George's dismay, Alicia snorted.

"What?" He questioned, "Why are you snorting? What's wrong with my little sister? Choose your words carefully, I'm a very violent man."

"Well then, according to our drunken confessions, Ginny has three more notches on her belt than I do."

"You're a liar!"

"I'm not! About this anyway."

"I'm going to have nightmares, you know. Lots of vivid nightmares of horrible boys stealing flowers from my baby sister. Actualy flowers, mind you. I'm not a pervert."

"Your baby sister who's going to have a baby of her own."

"Stop talking!"

"Make me!"

"Fine! Off to bed with you!"

And with that George lifted Alicia and slung her over his shoulder with ease. Alicia quickly vocalized her displeasure with a delightful "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"


	7. The Weasley Brunch

A/N: I just like to say hi and thanks for reading. Hi. Thanks.

* * *

"Hello all, sorry we're late. We woke up late this morning." George casually announced to the very tense dining room in the Burrow. 

Molly was angrily pusing a melon slice around her plate while everyone else seemed too nervous to even touch their food.

Alicia slipped into the empty seat next to Angelina, while George sat across from her next to Fred. Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione all filled the seats between the late couple and Molly and Arthur.

"Are we the last ones?" Alicia whispered to Angelina.

"Yeah, the older ones aren't coming." Angelina whispered back.

"Molly, love, calm down. There's no need to be quite so upset! You seemed a bit excited when you thought Alicia was pregnant!" Arthur cooed.

"Wait, what?" Alicia's head shot up, her eyes big.

"There was a slight misunderstanding..." George tried to explain.

"You thought I was pregnant?" Alicia questioned the table.

"You were in hysterics! As if your hormones were all pregnant like!" Molly claimed, her nose turning pink as if she were about to cry again.

"What did you say to them?" Alicia questioned with more severity, this time her question just being directed to George.

"Not that you were pregnant!" Goerge shot back.

"What did you say?"  
"I didn't say anything!"  
"You didn't even say that I'm not?"

"I don't know if you're not!" George clamped a hand over his hand at that comment.

"You--Oh, well! UGH!" Alicia's frustration overpowered her tongue as she stormed out of the room onto the back porch.

George got up to follow her, but Angelina quickly put a hand up to stop him saying, "No, you are much too stupid to talk to her right now."

"Oh, I agree. It's hereditary." George sincerely answered. He scowled at his father, who looked dumbstruck at what he had just done.

"See! Pregnant!" Molly spoke up, "And she's old enough to be a mum! And she's not my biological daughter, so it's okay!"

"She and George aren't married, but Harry and I are getting married! Doesn't that account for anything?" Ginny cried out in frustration.

"No! You're eleven years old!" Molly insisted.

Ron gave Harry a disgusted look, as if his sister really were eleven. Harry gave back a look of distraught and a bit of 'help me' thrown in there. Hermione stared incredibly hard at her plate of food, trying not to laugh or scream at the situations in front of her, but finding both of these tasks to be more difficult than NEWTS.

"You okay out here?" Angelina asked as Alicia sat on the bench that had recently been added to the Weasley yard.  
"Did you know gnomes fight with little tiny weapons?" she asked back, as if in a trance. Shee never took her eyes off the battle in front of her.

"Okay...that's an interesting conversation starter." Angelina replied, sitting down next to her friend, making sure to keep her feet up the way Alicia did just in case the little gnomes didn't pull their weapons out against her toes.

"You've been distracted lately." Angelina wasn't asking. Alicia wasn't talking, she just nodded, still watching the tiny gnome warriors. "Gonna tell me why?" Angelina asked as gently as she could.

"You sound like you're talking to a child."  
"You're not exactly acting all grown up."  
Alicia turned to Angelina, her face full of a focused sincerity.

"What do you know about Katie?"  
"Not this again--"  
"Just tell me!"

Angelina paused, taken aback by the hostility Alicia had never really shown before.

"I...I know she loved quidditch, and she never had an answer for when people asked her what she wanted to do when she left Hogwarts. I know that she never told stories from her summers or holiday breaks the way the rest of us did. And everything else about her, I already know you know."

Alicia nodded, closing her eyes with deep thoughts.

"What all do you know?" Alicia didn't answer for a moment, taking another deep breath.

"I know that I have to go to Azkaban. Tell George I'm not mad, and I'll see him at home. You can make up some polite crap about hospitality for everyone else." Alicia announced, getting up and walking deeper into the yard.

"Wait--what?" Angelina called after her, but she was too late, Alicia had Apparated away.

What everyone left at the Burrow didn't know, was that Alicia had brought herself to the Ministry Headquarters. For forty-five mintues, Alicia cajoled the representative from Azkaban that stayed at HQ. Once she finally convinced him to let her go, she had to fill out 18 different forms and go through 62 checks to make sure she wasn't there to break anyone out.

After four hours of that, Alicia was given a guide to help her find the inmate she was looking for. Despite the fact that the Demonters were long gone from the prison, Alicia found it hard to believe that happiness could ever survive in such a place.

"Welcome to Azkaban, I'm gonna say this is yer firs' visit wit' us." a younger man in his early twenties with acne scars on his cheeks was the guide. "I'm Gus, and I'll be guidin' yah through, to make sur' yah don' break out a guest."

"Hello," Alicia politely greeted, even though she wasn't sure how he could be so nice and polite here. "I'm looking for a woman by the name of Kelene Nochiviscoff. She's been here awhile, she was a Death Eater."  
Gus nodded all knowingly, and then headed down a long corridor, indicating that he wanted her to follow.

"How long have you worked here?" Alicia asked, being careful not to look at the faces that were peering out through the windows in some of the doors, and a few of the cat calls that came with them.

"E'er since they go' rid o' the Demonters. It's not ah good job, but it pays the bills. Some of the prisners ar' mo' intersting than anyone ou'side these walls."

There was more walking than talking as Alicia tried not to throw up from the smells of unwashed prisoners that Gus had become so used to.

"Her' we are. Mrs. Kelene Nochiviscoff, one of the original busted Death Eaters. Very nice lady, gave me a recipe that I sen' to me mum." Gus introduced, unlocking the cell door with four different keys. "I'm not really worr'd 'bout her bustin' out. You just step in, and call me when you're done."

Alicia nodded and stepped in, not sure what to expect when she looked at the prisoner.

She was right not to expect anything, who she saw was not anyone she would have ever expected. Ever.


	8. Into the Cell

Hello hello hello. I left you all with a bit of a cliffhanger, didn't I? Oh, the things I do for reviews...Just kidding. I like the intensity of a cliffie. When I'm writing it.

* * *

Alicia had been expecting a small woman, cowering in a corner, filthy and possibly hissing and spitting. Instead she found a small woman who was relatively clean, sitting on her cot, knitting the muggle way.

"Mrs. Nochiviscoff?" Alicia started, stepping deeper into the dank cell.

"Please, call me Kelene." the woman responded, her voice was surprisingly pleasant as she looked up from her scarf and gave a warm smile. She was already more inviting than Mrs. Bell.

"Do you mind if I come in? I have a few questions about your daughter."

"Katerina? Oh, do come in."

Alicia took a step forward, into the cell and soon realized she didn't have room to move anymore. Kelene indicated that she wanted her to sit on the cot too, so Alicia did, mainly because the walls and floor were so filthy she was afraid to touch either one much longer.

"I haven't seen Katerina in about ten years now, how is she?"

"She's--she's good." Alicia decided against not lying to the woman. Even though she was well aware of all the things that Kelene had done, and even though she could see the Dark Mark under the tattered sleeves of her rags, Alicia felt sorry for the woman.

"How's the baby?"

It took Alicia's mind a moment to catch up to that question, trying to remember who 'the baby' was exactly.

"Oh, she's wonderful. Won't be long before she's going to Hogwarts herself." Alicia acted as if she knew all of this for sure, despite the fact that she didn't even know if Kamryn had any magical abilities whatsoever.

"I hope she's in Slytherin! Just like the Dark Lord! Wouldn't that be lovely?" Kelene cooed, like any doting grandmother would, and inwardly, Alicia winced.

"Yes, lovely." Alicia couldn't look her in the eye. At all.

"So, tell me about Katie when she was little." Alicia instructed, trying to change the subject.

"Well, as you probably know, I didn't have Katerina for long. Then filthy mudblood lovers took her away. They put her in foster care! My baby! Where muggles trash lived! Isn't that just tragic?" Alicia had obviously struck a nerve. She sat nervously on the edge of the cot, becoming increasingly aware of how unstable this woman was.

"Yes, tragic." Alicia muttered in a dazed voice.

"I tried to teach her everything right immediately, she almost had the killing curse down, but then the mudblood lovers came and took her away. She could have been able to stop them if they had just come a few weeks later! Everything would be better. She's powerful, my girl. The Dark Lord would have no problem winning if she were allowed to go to him like she really wants."

This woman didn't know anything about anything. She obviously didn't know or just didn't accept that the Dark Lord was long gone. She also didn't seem to know that Katie had no hatred towards anyone. At least, she wasn't when she was at Hogwarts.

Another pause came as Alicia tried to figure out a way to escape this dingy place while not offending the woman, who she did not want angry.

"So, any news on Kosey? Which cell is he in?" Kelene casually asked, still knitting away.

_Kosey? Who's--oooooh...No one must have told her that Kosey died..._Alicia's mind figured out.

"He's good, he's in a cell six rows down." Six feet under, six rows down. It was all the same in the tiny box of a world.

"Katie, er, Katerina, brought her baby here?" Alicia didn't want to lie anymore than she had to. Plus, the idea of Katie telling _anyone _about the mystery baby caught her interest.

"Yes! It was such a nice day. That baby was so small, only about a week old...She cried a lot." Kelene started out enthusiastic, but her voice gradually became more thought filled.

"Katerina or the baby?"  
"The baby...and then Katerina started crying after I told her a story."  
"What story?"  
"The story of my mother, and her mother."  
"What's so sad about that?"

Kelene paused for a moment, putting her knitting down for the first time. She turned to Alicia, and after a deep breath, opened her mouth and began to speak.

"My mother had seven children. I was the third, and the oldest girl. So, when mother slowly drank herself to death, Daddy made sure that I ran the house properly. That's why I was such a good mother. And my grandmother, my mother's mother, just flat out left my mother when she was a little girl." Kelene's voice didn't sound like a woman confessing the wretched fates that haunted her family, but as if she were just talking about what she had just bought at the grocery store.

"Oh..." was the only sound Alicia could manage. What exactly could she say? "Yes, that's the story without the details. I don't have all day like I did when Katerina came to visit." What the woman could have had planned was beyond Alicia, but she went along with it.

Kelene went back to her knitting, quite content and humming a tune that she seemed to be making up as she went. Alicia sat on the edge of the cot, as still as she could be, trying to muster the strength to make a run for the cell door. Luckily, or unluckily, a guard walked by the door, whistling a tune that if Alicia had known better, she would have recognized as a theme song from a very popular muggle television show.

Before the tune even ended, Kelene was off the cot, her knitting on the floor with her face pressed up to the door as she screamed: "FILTHY MUDBLOOD! GET OUT! GET OUT!" among other things that Alicia would never be able to bring herself ot utter.

Once the older woman finished her screams, Gus calmly swung open the door to release Alicia.

"G'bye, dear!" Kelene called as she left.

"'Bye." Alicia muttered back.

"Did yah 'ave a s'essful visit?" Gus asked as he lead her to the exit, feeling just as calm and happy as when he dropped her off.

"I guess I did," Alicia answered thoughtfully while keeping her eyes firmly plantedon her feet as she walked. "but I'm not exactly sure what I was looking for when I came here anymore."

"Well, tha's how yah fine what yer _really _lookin' fer. Me mum taught me that." Gus wisely replied, politely giving a small, comical bow as he dropped Alicia off at the door that was to bring her back to the same office that she had gone through back at the Ministry to get there to begin with.

"Thank you." Alicia took her eyes off her shoes and looked Gus in the eye as she said that. He grinned as she disappeared through the door back to a safe place where the insanity wasn't quite as noticable.


	9. In the Apartment

Happy holidays, chickadees.

* * *

"Where've you been?" George sounded as if he were trapped between angrier than ever before, and more relieved than he thought possible. 

"Didn't Angelina tell you?" Alica answered, walking through the door into the flat. She looked as tired as she felt, smiling a little, but not enough to look happy. It was more of that happiness that only comes with unwanted questions being answered, no matter how bad the question was.

"You didn't really go to Azkaban!"

"I did, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scrub all the grime, filth, and insanity off my body in the shower."

George stood there, dumbstruck, as she walked into the bathroom. He slowly gained his wits about him as he heard the water running, and by the time Alicia stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in her dark blue bathrobe and pink from the hot water, he was just about at a normal place mentally.

"Where are you going now?" he asked as she shuffled past him, smelling strongly of lilacs.

"To my typewriter."

"To write all night, again?"

"More than likely."

"Alicia," George said, taking her arm in his hands, his voice full of earnast concern. "This needs to stop. This obsession with Katie isn't healthy! I miss her too, and I wish I knew where she was, but you're obsessed! It's getting scary! You can't keep doing this to yourself!"  
"Doing what?" Alicia's voice was shaky as she waited for the answer.

"Leaving out of nowhere, reading Katie's diary, stealing her cat! It's not right!"

"Would it better to just forget her? Act as if I never knew her?" her voice got shakier. "Would you prefer it if I quit acting as if I ever knew her, just like I did when I graduated? Just like _you _did when you left! Do you like that better? Out of sight, out of mind?" tears were falling now.  
"What are you talking about?"

"We abandoned her! When we all left, she had no more friends! And she had all these secrets, and all these problems, and by the time she was old enough to talk to one of us about it, we were gone!" Alicia sobbed.

George didn't argue, he just took the sobbing girl in his arms, and gently rocked her.

"Okay, 'Lic, you go to your typewriter and keep doing whatever you need to know. I've grown to love Celia as if she were my own, anyways." he whispered, suddenly feeling the same pangs of guilt that Alicia had been suffering through alone.

"It's not your fault," he cooed, "you know that right? That it has never been your job to save anyone?"

Alicia nodded, but didn't feel much better. All her life she had been considered a bit of a pushover everywhere but the quidditch field, and now she felt as is if she hadn't just let Katie down but everyone else for not being what they expected her to be.

"You're going to go type, aren't you?" George asked after a moment, releasing Alicia.

She nodded shyly, wiping away tears. "And I'd appreciate a bit of support..."

"I've learned, there's no stopping you." he gave her a small smile and let her go.

Alicia typed with a fury that night. She typed so fast that her words were riddled with typos, but still readable so she didn't care. She wrote about Azkaban. She wrote how she could smell the misery in the air as she walked to see her friends mother. She wrote about how Gus stayed happy in the most unlikely of places. She poured everything out when she wrote about Katie's heritage.

A grandmother who drank herself to death under the watchful eyes of her children. A great grandmother who just got up and left everything and everyone. A mother who lost her mind and was yet to realize. It could have driven anyone insane.

It could drive a person with her own daughter at fourteen even crazier. The really insane part, at least to Alicia, was that at school, no one would have any idea that all of this had gone on with the perfectly normal Katie Bell.

Alicia went to bed earlier that night then she had been the past few nights, under the request of George. He would have shown his appreciation if it weren't for the fact that he had conked out while Alicia was still typing away.

Almost like her body's way of spiting her, Alicia woke up earlier than necessary the next morning. After rolling over more times than anyone should, Alicia gave in and got out of bed.

Celia was sitting on the kitchen table when Alicia went in for breakfast, staring her down, as if Celia knew that pretty soon they'd have a brawl over the table.

"Sit where you like, I don't care." Alicia told the cat as she leaned against the counter to enjoy her toast. Celia continued her staring, just in case.

After a few restless moments, Alicia cracked and went back to Katie's diary. This time, instead of just going back to the page she had left off, she flipped through. The diary was surprisingly thick and Alicia still had a ways to go. She kept flipping, until something fell out. Alicia picked it up, taking a closer look.

It was a small envelope, magically filled with tons of photographs. It didn't take much examing to figure out that each and every photo was of Kamryn. From her first photograph, to a fairly recent school photo. Each one worn around the edges, some more than others, from being looked at so much.

Alicia put the pictures back, her hands shaking a bit, and went back to reading the diary.

For the first time, the diary started giving details about the years spent in foster care. The house was described as "the pink sore thumb on an already nasty hand." The more the neighborhood was described, the more familiar it became.

"I used to live in the flats right by there!" Alicia exclaimed Celia, who still sat on the table. Her ears went back with alert, and she narrowed her eyes. The table was officially lost to the cat.

"Okay, I can't leave you alone. I get it. Now will you stop talking to the cat?" a very groggy George questioned as he stumbled into the kitchen where Alicia was reading.

"We're not allowed to use the table." Alicia answered, even though it really didn't apply to the question. "Do you remember the flat I lived in before we moved in togehter?" she suddenly asked, her eyes full of interest.

"Hard to forget. Dodgiest side of town. You should have made the rats pay rent." George snorted.

"Har har. It wasn't that bad, and you know it."

"And what was the reason you finally moved out?"

"To move in with you!"  
"And...?"

"And a wall might have fallen down."

"See? Dodgy."

"_Anyways_," Alicia started again, "do you remember the houses that weren't far from there?"  
"The ones that were dodgier than your flat?"

"Yes."

"What about them?"  
"I'm going there today."

George paused for a moment, pouring himself a cup of coffee before turning back around.

"And there's no way ot talk you out of this."

"Is there ever?"

"Well, I appreciate being told where you're going for once."  
"I told you when I was going to Azkaban!"

"Just carry some ID."

"Why?"  
"Because when you're _killed_, it'll make it easier to identify your body." George finished with an affectionate kiss on the forehead.


	10. The Pink House

I finished writing the whole thing. Sixteen chapters in total. I'm happy with the ending, less abrupt than my others. I'm not quite sure why I'm putting all this. Just read.

* * *

A pink sore thumb on an already nasty hand was the perfect way to describe the foster house. It didn't take Alicia much wandering after apparating over to her old building.

The neighborhood wasn't much to brag about, with peeling paint and messy yards, but it was the pink house that put them all to shame. The shutters were falling off, the shingles sliding off the roof. The siding that made the house so pink was broken in some places, and falling off in others.

The yard was nothing but dead grass and broken toys. Along with children playing on the dead grass with broken toys.

"What?" one of the kids hollered at her, a little boy with his overalls hook broken.

"I..." Alicia suddenly realized she didn't know the name of the foster mother she was looking for. "I need to talk to the lady of the house."

"We don't want to buy it!" the same little boy hollered, and his companions, about four other children, all laughed at this.

"Who said I'm selling?" Alicia questioned, putting a hand on her hip. She realized that attitude was key here, just like it had been when she lived a few streets over. "Tell the lady of the house I'm here." she finally ordered.

The mouthy little boy went into the house, grumbling and shuffling his feet as he walked. The other children just watched, curiosity taking over.

After just a few moments, a very large woman made her way out the door, followed by the mouthy boy. She was wearing a pink house dress, it almost matched the house, with black polka dots. She had a scarf in in her brown curly hair that went with it. She had no shoes, and was stirring a large bowl that looked to have pancake mix in it, despite the fact that lunch was coming, not breakfast.

"Can I help yeh?" she asked, squinting in her eyes in the sunlight.

"I'm looking for someone who used to live with you. Katie, or Katerina. She was adopted by the Bells." Alicia started, figuring that her lack of politeness was going to unnoticed.

"I remember her. Don't remember many of 'em, but I remember her. C'min." the large woman instructed, still stirring as she spoke.

Alicia followed her through the front door, and not surprisingly, the inside of the house didn't seem much better than the outside. Pictures on the walls that remained still, pictures of countless children with countless stories. The furniture was worn and dinged up, and the toys that filled the room looked older than Alicia.

"That girl is hard to ferget, came here, all those nasty curses. Most of the kids I take in, muggleborns who's parents freak out, then they're given to me, but not her." the woman went on, still cooking away.

"Why?" Alicia questoined, even though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Well, there was the whole not sayin' nothing but curses stint. But that's not the most memorable part." and then she stopped talking. The woman just stopped talking.

"What is?" Alicia was practically begging for an explanation.

"She came back. When she was about nine. That's not normal. When a girl ge's adopted, we expect 'er to stay with the family, but not her. She would come for visits." the large pink lady was barely audible over the pots and pans she was banging, but Alicia made the words out.

"Why'd she come back?" it really didn't matter if Alicia sounded offensive or not.

"Tha's an easy question. Jordan. She came back for Jordan."

"Who was Jordan?"  
"Her best friend. A couple years older, but Jordan watched out for the girl."

"Do you happen to know where I can find this Jordan?"

Without as much as a word about it, the woman sprawled an address on an old receipt. One of the many that littered the kitchen, actually.

With a few words of thanks, Alicia was out the door, just in time to see a pack of hungry looking children migrate from the living room to the kitchen.

Alicia escaped from the collapsing pink house, reading the address over and over again. It couldn't be right, yet at the same time, there was no way it was wrong. That large woman in pink was probably the closest thing Jordan ever had to a mother, so she'd know the correct address.

She wondered because she knew exactly what the address was. When she had lived in the nasty flats, she would walk an insane amount, as in about eighteen blocks, to cruddy little bar that sold Fire Whiskey cheap. Being young and fresh out of Hogwarts and working odd jobs that could drive anyone to the bottle, Alicia knew the bar well.

But she hadn't been there for about two years, and it wasn't likely that the bartender would know her name still. Not to say that she was an alcoholic, but the bar was a hot hang out spot.

It was worth a shot, and it wasn't like she couldn't use the excercise. So Alicia let her curiosity give in, for the umpteenth time since she decided to find her friend, and started walking towards the old bar.

The Whispy Willow is not the name of what one would call a 'tough' bar, but that's what it had become. Alicia stood outside of her old haunt, smiling a bit to herself as she remembered every little crack in the windows she helped to make. The biggest crack, which like all the others was easy to fix, but the bartender/owner just didn't care, was made the last time Alicia had been there. An ex boyfriend showed up, and George, being drunker than he ever had been in school, had slipped him some new experiment and blown the guy across the room. Ah, the memories.

The old door still squeaked as Alicia pushed through it, and much to her surprise, faced a full house.

"Remember me?" Alicia asked the bartender. A large man with no hair, and several tattoos. His name? Billy.

"Yeh, want a Fire Whiskey?" he gruffly asked.

"It's barely one o'clock!" Alicia snorted, laughing a bit the idea.

"Well, yuh want lunch?"

"You serve lunch now?"

"You've been gone awhile."

"Have you started cleaning this place, too?" Alicia's eyes were big, full of laughter.

"Things haven't changed that much." Billy remained gruff, not really catching onto the laughter.

"Oh, I love this place." Alicia sighed, leaning against the bar, scanning the now restaurant. It had become a hot spot for starving students in the area, a few preppy intellectuals having heated discussions at tables, and a few punks chilling in a boothe. Next to Alicia, two girls with shirts way too low who seemed to be either drunk already, or still drunk from the previoust night.

Knowing better than to ask Billy anymore questions, Alicia turned to the drunk girls to inquire about the mysterious Jordan.

"Would either of you happen to know Jordan?" she asked, leaning forward a bit, making her able to smell the alcohol on the girls breath.

"Jordan's a demon in the sack." one of the girls laughed.

"And out of it!" the other girl finished, making both of them laugh harder.

"That's great." Alicia said, patronizing a bit, "And where is this demon?"

Both girls pointed to a stair case at the back of the place, which evidently led up to a flat.

And Alicia walked up the stairs, ready to face the first best friend of someone she thought was a best friend.


	11. Jordan

Hello hello hello, my darlings. And how are we? Good? Good! Well, this is pointless. Onto the chapter!

* * *

Creaky stairs give away all hopes of a quiet entrance, so the screaming stairs that Alicia was trying to make her way up to the slightly infamous Jordan. There really was no need to knock on the door on the top of the stairs, there was no way Jordan hadn't heard. 

Nevertheless, Alicia knocked on the old brown door. The door squeaked open, making a louder noise than all the stairs, so there is a chance that Jordan was just deaf.

"Jordan?" Alicia questioned when a young woman with her shirt half way buttoned up, her blond hair mussed, and her short legs barely covered at all by her skirt.

"Nope, Jordan's in back. Come in, I guess. I was just leaving." the woman snorted, grabbing her purse and walking out. Alicia returned the snort with a look, which was completely ignored by the blond hussy. Then she figured, 'what the hell?' and simply walked into the flat.

It was dingy, to say the least. Blue wallpaper was slowly peeling off the walls, and the furniture looking older than the building it sat in. The small kitchen that was just steps from the door, looked unused. The couch, however looked like it had seen too much use.

"Kelly, babe, dont go--oh." that was Jordan? It couldn't be. This supposed Jordan was...too tall, too strong, too..._male_.

"Sorry, Kelly, or I'm guessing she was Kelly, just left. I'm Alicia. I'm a friend of Katie, or Katerina." Alicia managed to speak, but how she was able to do that while staring this Jordan in face with the most confused expression was a mystery.

His shirt was so worn that it was almost see through, a t-shirt supporting some band from the 80's. His jeans had rips, and it didn't seem that they were bought that way. His hair was up in a faux hawk, and by the look of it, his hair did that by years of habit.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, but were you in foster care with Katie?" _Stop staring, stop staring. You shouldn't have assumed that Jordan was a girl._

"Yeah, I watched out for her." _He has familiar eyes. Where have I seen those eyes? _

"I heard you were her best friend." _Holy. Crap._

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Now, I know you have no idea who I am, and the following is going to freak you out a bit, but go with it. Katie got adopted at age five, yes?"  
"Yes..." Jordan looked a little off set by this.

"And then, about age nine, started coming to visit the foster home, right?"

"Right..."

"And stopped coming at all around age fourteen, and you haven't seen her since, correct?"

"Okay, who the hell are you?" Jordan finally demanded, not looking too pleased.

Alicia took a deep breath and got ready to do more explaining than she ever had done in her life, even more than when she was still in school and ratted out the twins to save her own skin.

"My name is Alicia Spinett. I went to school with Katie, or Katerina. Something you didn't do because of foster care. I noticed that it's rare for students in situations like that to be able to go to Hogwarts, probably because of financial needs. I'm a year older than Katie, and I guess that could explain why I was such an oblvious git, like when I didn't notice Katie had such a terrible life. I suspect she started going back at age nine because she didn't have the greatest life with her adopted family. Now, what age did you two start having sex?"

That question caught Jordan by surprise, even more than every other strange thing Alicia had done since she first entered his home.

"Oh, wow. Uh, I was fifteen, and she was, uh, thirteen. It's not sick! I know it seems bad, but it's really not. We weren't really foster brother and sister because that woman wasn't our mum. We were just stuck in the same house, so we bonded. Most of the kids were younger than us, so she relied on me, and I needed her to keep me sane. We fell in love," he paused there to get a fag from his pocket and light it, taking a long drag, "the way that no one else can. It's this bond we have. We've been through the same hell, we both have harsh pasts. No one else could relate to us."

"Did you have a future planned?" Alicia's voice cracked, but she wasn't sure why. The question made Jordan smile at a memory, and under a different circumstance, it would have made Alicia smile, too. But there was just something about this whole situation that didn't let her smile. But she had to ask. Katie always had plans for the next day, even though she didn't know what to do in the future.

"Yeah, we were going to live in St. Ive's. On the coast. It wouldn't matter if we used magic or not. And we'd adopt kids. I know, I don't really look like the type. Hell, I've done my fair of drugs, and I know she has too, but we were gonna adopt every kid we could. We would of had a home. Not just for those kids, but for us, too."

"Would have?"

"It's kinda hard to live with a person you haven't seen since you were sixteen."

"You don't know why?"

"Should I?"

Alicia couldn't speak. She couldn't say anything for a moment.

"You have dark eyes." she finally whispered, confusing him even more. "And dark hair." she finished. "Thank you for your help, I have to go."

Alicia ran out the flat's door, down the stairs, into the bar.

She didn't say goodbye to Billy, and he probably didn't see her. The drunk girls were gone.

Alicia ran home, and threw up.


	12. The Customer Who Did Not Shop

There's absolutely no point to this author's note, but I felt the need to put it despite.

* * *

George found Alicia sitting on the bathroom floor, crying softly and rocking herself. She realized he was there when he pulled her onto his lap and let her cry. 

"Gonna tell me what's wrong?" George finally asked as Alicia's crying slowed down. They were still rocking on the floor of the bathroom.

"I don't know what to do." Alicia whispered back, burrowing her face even deeper into his chest.

"You don't have to do anything." he assured her, not sure what else to say.

"Yes I do!" she responded, pulling her face up and looking George in the eye. "I have to do _something_! I can't just pretend I don't know!"

"What?"

"I don't want to try and explain it. Can I just...talk about it later?" Alicia sighed, giving up on making a decision.

George tried to understand, but couldn't really get a grasp on the whole situation. He never heard the whole story, since Alicia really couldn't bare to say it all. The guilt of everything she had discovered, added to the guilt of everything she never knew made her life a bit too complicated. George's intellect is undeniably above par, but there are somethings that no one can understand.

To make her feel better, George offered to bring her into the shop. Technically, she would come to work, but this was Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, so work and play did not have many differences.

Alicia was assigned the 'job' of testing out some of the less...dangerous products in the store. Giving a bit of a show. For an entire day, Alicia had fun showing off unpopable bubbles and ways to make tiny skeletons dance for children. She was a hero, and more than once the twins would shoot her jealous looks as they went back to doing purely business-y things.

"Okay, why is it that I don't do this full time?" Alicia laughed at the end of it all, sitting up on the counter, letting her feet swing in a very relaxed matter. Two exhausted Weasleys collapsed onto two identical stools that were left behind the counter.

"Because when you're doing it, and having an obviously grand time, neither of us can do it. Meaning, that we don't get fun breaks. And if one of us does it, he's guilted by the other." Fred explained, leaning back and stretching.

"It doesn't matter, it's closing time. Which means, _someone _will fall victim to the more _risky _products we keep in the back as soon as the door is locked." George reminded, his eyes slipping to the doorway that led to the backroom which held all his favorite items.

As if on cue, the little bell that rang everytime someone opened the door, sang it's little song. The twins fought the urge to sigh, and, being perceptive, Alicia shooed them to clean the back, offering to deal with the very last customer.

"Sorry to sound rude, but we're just about to close, so unless you have something in mind--" Alicia started, grinning as much as she could.

"No, I'm not here to buy anything. I'm looking for an Alicia. Alicia Spinett, or something really close to that." The supposed customer was a short, frail looking woman in her early twenties, with thin, perfectly straight dark brown hair and a slight shake to her."I'm Alicia."

"Oh, uh, I heard you were asking around about Katie."

"I am."

"Have you found anything out about her?" the girl's already nervous demeanor became even more anxious as she asked that last question."I've...found quite a bit...I'm sorry, but were you one of her drug buddies?" Alicia blurted. Hey, if this girl could track her down, Alicia could ask drug questions.

"Yeah," oddly enough, the girl grinned, putting her head down, crossing her arms. "I am. I haven't always been bad. Life is just hard, ya know?"

"Yeah..."

"But I just wanted to know about Katie. I haven't heard from her for months. None of us have."

"Us?"  
"Oh, yeah. There's a big group of us. We're all 'drug buddies,' as you called us. We spent a few years in the same neighborhood."

"Oh,"

"Katie was real popular, and not just because of all the money."  
"Money?"  
"Oh, yeah, her birth dad was loaded. Left it all to her, but she rarely acted like it. As in, never. But sometimes, she'd pay for all the--"  
"I think I know." Alicia cut the shaky girl off, not really wanting to know _everything _about Katie.

"So, uh, here" the girl quickly handed Alicia a note, and pulled her hand away right after, as if Alicia were going to smack it. "It's my number, call me when you find her. If I don't answer, someone who wants the same thing as I do will. A lot of us want to find her, so just call. Ask for Fiona."

"Fiona, got it." Alicia nodded. As nice as this Fiona girl was, she made Alicia nervous. She looked as if Alicia couldn't breathe on her too hard because it'd make her fly across the room.

With a mumbled goodbye, Fiona shuffled out of the store, her eyes down as she exited.

"What was that about?" Fred asked from the backroom. Alicia kept watching the door way.

"Nothing." she answered, slipping the note into her pocket. "Someone just needed directions. I'll just lock the door, and then George and I will probably head on home. Send my love to Angelina."


	13. Bit of a Break

This chapter is relatively long. It rained in Texas. This author's not also serves no point. The pope believes in evolution.Weee and such.

I don't know anyting about St. Ives, just that it's supposedly on the coast.

* * *

George walked into his living room and frowned. There Alicia was, slumped on the couch, reading a book again, looking bored. For some reason, that he was yet to figure out, her fun day at the store just a few days ago had caused her to be even more unhappy than before.

"You wanna go to the park?" he asked, his best puppy dog eyes at work.

"No," Alicia answered, not looking up from her book. Her voice sounded tired.

"You wanna go on a walk?"

"No."

"What do you want to do?"

"No."

"You're not listening!" George's voice went desperate. He wasn't used to Alicia being like this. Before she had been happy, and smiley, and all around fun. But now? Now she was depressed.

"Maybe we should go away for the weekend?" George suggested, attempting to be coy.

"Where?" Alicia still didn't look up from her book.

"Well, your granmum left you the keys to her place on the coast. Where is it exactly...?"

"St. Ives. It's at St. Ives." Alicia rememberd, her eyes going big as she looked up from the book. "I can't believe I didn't remember that!"

"You really need a break, don't you?" George asked, surprised at her sudden interest.

Alicia nodded, trying to remember how big St. Ive's actually is. How easy would it be to find a person determined to be gone forever in a town Alicia didn't know at all?

"Oh, crap. We're getting a new shimpment of bubble bees this week, there's no way that I can leave Fred alone..."

"Oh." Alicia didn't even try to hide the disappointment in her voice. On a fluke, she was sure she would find Katie, but stupid Fred and his stupid habit of not always shutting cages all the way...Then again, bubble bees could be quite dangerous when left alone, so, it was really inevitable that George had to be there.

"Why don't you go alone?" he suggested, his voice even sounded sure, like he really did mean it.  
"Are you sure?"

"O'course. Just promise me one thing,"

"Anything." Alicia's unhappiness was out the window. Her face had brightened, and her messy hair went from hobo like, to messy chic, just with the change of her face.

"No cheating."

"That's outrageous!" George gave a lopsided grin at her response, but trusted her despite. After all, Alicia was a pretty girl, she could probably seduce any drunk she might stumble across.

Friday afternoon, Alicia kissed George goodbye and stepped on the Knight Bus, bag in tow, and gave the driver a nice smile as she got ready to try and make sense of everything she had ever known about Katie Bell.

She sat down on a bench, holding the arm rest as tightly as she could. She could have apparated, but no, that would have been too easy. Well, that and she wasn't positive of the location. She didn't feel like splinching at the moment, thank you very much.

The ride was a short one, the driver had obviously noticed the tip Alicia had slipped in as she paid, just like she had intended. He winked at her as she got off the bus. She then found herself quite happy to be leaving that bus.

She stepped off and looked around. This was a rather muggle filled little town, but it wasn't too terrible. Quite a few older people, those muggles who, even if they do see something, don't really seem to care.

Alicia could smell the ocean from where she was standing. A cool wind carried the salty wind to where she was standing, looking for third street so that she could find her way to Orchid Lane, where her little cottage would be. She didn't mind walking. Her luggage was now tiny and comftorably stored in her pocket, along with old receipts and a gum wrapper.

The small town was a pleasant little postcard town. There was a well groomed park with a general store that just radiated family business painted red. Each little business seemed to be owned by some family or another. It truly did look like the perfect place to raise a family, but as Alicia walked, the less homey it would feel.

The buildings got taller, dingier. The windows went from neatly groomed with homemade curtains to broken or written on. Liquor stores replaced family owned general stores. The more she walked, the more aware Alicia became that she was far from Orchid Lane, but at the same time, the more likely it felt that she was getting closer to finding Katie. That last feeling sent a shudder down her back.

Eventually, as the night came closer, Alicia headed back towards the coast, and found her way to Orchid Lane. The cottage sat on a row of cottages just like it. So sickly cute and obviously vacation houses. Alicia felt a pang of guilt as she unpacked her things into a dresser that was painted a pale pink and it's cutesy looked matched the rest of the house. Everything was nice and neat and matching. No drug addicts would sleep in the bed Alicia slept in, and no one who became a mother at fourteen would bathe in the claw foot tub she had in the morning. Everything was so fake perfect that reality seemed to be tinted with rose tinted glasses that every person born into an easy life wears.

Breakfast was spent a small diner that was obviously built to get all the money the people in the cabins were willing to throw around. Luckily for Alicia, the summer was far away, so the prices were brought down to reasonable. Overcooked eggs and blackened toast. Alicia only threw up a little after that meal. The orange juice was good, at least.

Another walk consumed Alicia's afternoon. The picture of Katie with Celia that Alicia had stolen from the empty flat was shown to countless faces. A few people said she seemed familiar, but no one knew for sure. Several names were possibitlies for the girl in the photo. Katie was also Krystal, Trinity, Sheila and Colette just to name a few.

Liquor store cashiers were the most useless, which made sense. They had seen countless girls like her, no doubt. Still, Alicia's frustration kept building. The afternoon was wasted on muggles who couldn't tell each other apart.

After dinner, at a different, better diner, Alicia sucked in her fears and decided it was time to look elsewhere for Katie. This time, taking the muggle bus, she went to the local hospital.

The bus was filled with people who seemed so wrapped up in their own destinations that Alicia didn't have to worry about her occasional looks of fascination at the muggle contraption. The first hospital she stopped at, St. Michaels, was large and white and clean.

The workers in the hospital all wore scrubs or doctors clothes, and were constantly on the move. It was like going inside a sanitized ant hill. A man working at the front desk in plain dark blue scrubs looked at the picture Alicia had and ran the names "Katie Bell" and "Katerina Nochiviscoff" but nothing came up. He asked a few a nurses, but no one recognized the girl. Neither did that patients. Alicia deemed this place as wrong and got back on a muggle bus.

The next hospital was smaller, on the border line between the good side of St. Ive's and the...not so good. It was a brownstone building, less busy and anthill like than the one before. It was just called St. Ives General. The people still wore scrubs, but seemed less strict. This time a woman sat behind the official desk, not wearing scrubs but a normal regular sweater set.

"Hello, dear! What ails ya?" the older receptionist eagerly asked as Alicia walked up.

"Have you seen this girl? Has she been a patient?" Alicia asked, showing the picture.

"Hmmm...have a name?"

The pair went through all the formalities, the name exchange and the asking around. Again, nothing came of the formalities.

Alicia wearily climbed on yet another muggle bus.

The bus ventured farther and farther into the bad side of town. This time, when the bus stopped in front of a building claiming to be a hospital. The only indicater besides the name of "South St. Ives Medical Center" was an ambulance entrance and a sign that read "Medical insurance not necessary for treatment."

Alicia walked in and wasn't sure if she was actually in a hospital. It wasn't nearly as clean as the first two, and there were more patients waiting than ever before. The doctors were more casually dressed, more running shoes and jeans than ever before.

She made her way over to the recpetionist desk, where, instead of a receptionist stood, a very busy looking Asian doctor was searching through files. He looked up when Alicia came up to him.

"Can I help you?" he asked, stopping his search completely.

"I'm looking for this girl," she answered, showing him the picture.

The doctor frowned, and requested that Alicia follow him.


	14. Basement

Hello, my little chickadees. My, aren't we all looking lovely this morning?

* * *

Alicia followed the doctor to a staircase, and for a moment she thought she saw something in his pocket, but quickly talked herself out of it.

_Stop being so paranoid. You're not at home, you're at St. Ives! _her mind reminded.

As she walked down the stairs behind the doctor, taking note of all the bare pipes and how damp the cement walls around her were, she took careful notice not to ask the doctor what was wrong with Katie.

_This is the basement, it's probably the mental ward! Or, it's the place they store all the people who won't wake up. Coma. That's what it's called. Poor Katie must be in a coma! _

The more she walked, the colder she became. Alicia soon was shivering, but noticed that the doctor didn't seem to notice the chnage at all. Either it was her own imagination, or the doctor was just used to it. Soon, the stairs were gone, and the two just stood in a basement.

"Not much farther." the doctor told her, not looking the scared looking Alicia in the eye. She noticed that his hair was cut shorter than George's, but was not a buzz cut. He seemed to be a very casual person. Lookwise at least. The two went down a short hallway, and the more she walked, the more Alicia could hear the blood pounding in her ears.

Alicia really didn't know much about the muggle medical world, but she had a feeling it was not a good sign when many people layed on metal tables in a cold room, covered in white sheets.

A small feeling of relief went through Alicia's body as the pair kept walking, but didn't feel much better as the doctor stopped the pair in front of a large, metal door.

"I feel that it's only right to ask you if you think you can stomach going in here...although, I suppose it's a little too late." he asked, professional concern danced across his face.

"Let me in," Alicia stated, "please." The doctor nodded, taking a key and unlocking the door.

Inside the room, there was only one metal table, and a person covered in a white sheet.

"Is that her?" Alicia was on the brink of tears, but didn't show it.

"I need you to tell me that." the doctor answered, pulling the sheet carefully from the girl's face.

It was Katie. No doubt, it was Katie.

"How long has she been here?" the tears stayed at bay.

"About two months."

"She just looks like she's sleeping...but grayer. She's the same Katie, just so gray and still..." still, no tears. "Did you use a preservation spell?"

The doctor looked up at the question, eyes big with surprsie.

"I saw your wand." Alicia answered the question he didn't ask.

"I'll go get Jane Do--Katie's things for you." the kind doctor stepped out of the room.

Alicia heard the door click closed, but didn't move. She just stood there, standing over Katie. She was sure she had been ready to face anything when she would find Katie. Katie could have had more secret children. A husband. A wife. She could be a man, and it would have been okay.

_Anything but dead! _her mind screamed.

Without even thinking about it, Alicia put a hand on Katie's forehead, and was shocked at the waxy feel.

_It's like she's not even human anymore..._her mind continued. Her stomach couldn't handle what her mind was processing, and she had to turn away so as not to throw up on Katie...

After a few moments of trying to breathe, Alicia used a scourgifying spell and tried to calm down.

"What did you do?" Alicia whispered at the girl on the table, "_What did you do!" _she finally screamed.

"You were supposed to be there! After Hogwarts! Why did you do this? Why did you let yourself die? Did you do it on purpose?" she had started pacing around the room.

"How could you let this happen? How could you do this to me? How could you do this to yourself! Do you not realize how many people you've let down just by dying?"

Alicia's voice was shaking with tears, but she kept talking despite.

"You let so many people down...Your mum, your dad, your biological mum. Sure, she's mad, but she needs you! Just like she needs your dad! And you've both left her! You left more than her! Your sister,_ who's raising your child_! And what about your child? That little girl who looks just like you! Who _needs _to know you!"

Alicia had to stop at this point, letting a sob release from her throat.

"Jordan won't know what to do." her voice dropped to a whisper, as if the sob had taken her voice. "He's still hung up on you. He loved you first, and he'll love you last. You might be the only person who he'll ever love, and you just had to get up and die. Why is it so hard for me to be mad at you?"

By this point, Alicia could no longer stand on her own. She had leaned back on the cold, stone walls. Her body was already so cold she didn't even notice the fact that a chill was sent through her.

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" Alicia asked, tears slowly slipping down her cheeks, "I would have listened, I promise. I could have been there...I should have been there..."

She was out of words. Alicia couldn't think of anything else to say, nor did she feel the need to. She just took a few deep breaths, and tried to remain a bit calm.

A moment later, the old door let out another click and the doctor who had taken Alicia down there returned.

"Ma'am?" he asked, he never did her name, "are you okay?"

"Yeah...I think so." Alicia answered.

"I have--her things, if you're ready." the doctor had already forgotten Katie's name.

"Yeah...I'll just write down her parents address, they'll know what to do." The doctor nodded curtly, and stepped out of the room. Alicia followed, giving one last glance at the girl on the table.

"This is all she had when she was brought in." the doctor pointed to a cardboard box that wasn't particularly full.

"Who brought her in?" Alicia questioned, standing over the box.

"Ambulance, she was already gone."  
"How'd she die?"  
"Overdose. Drug overdose."  
"Was it on purpose?"

There was a pause as the doctor glanced at his hands, uncomftorably.

"No way of knowing. We had always hoped that when someone finally came for her, they'd know. Even on this side of town we don't usually have bodies waiting that long." Alicia's face fell, and the doctor noticed, "I didn't mean it like that! It's just that--well, you did come for her, that's got to account for something. When you're ready, there's some paperwork I'll need you to sort out upstairs." the doctor, quickly slinked out, regretting what he had said.

Alicia bent down and peered into the box. A pair of ripped, almost shredded faded blue jeans. A t shirt that advertised some unknown band, also worn thin with time. Her tennis shoes looked second hand, and there were no socks to be seen. At the very bottom, was this brown leather jacket. It was so old that it could barely be called leather anymore, and it happened to be the softest jacket Alicia had ever seen. All the front pockets were empty, but the inside, sometimes called secret pocket, had something in it.

It seemed to be a piece of paper, but with closer examination, it was a photo. After even closer examination, it proved to be of a baby. The picture looked old, but it seemed more worn with handling than time. The baby had dark eyes, and equally dark hair. She was wrapped in a pink blanket, and was being held in some woman's arm.

On the back of the picture, Katie's handwriting was clearly still on there. It read:

_Kamryn, age six months_

_Don't go back, you'll only hurt her. Never hurt her._


	15. Three Days Later

This is the next to last chapter, kiddos. I don't know what's coming next, writing wise. Any suggestions, kids?

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Four days after the Bells had been contacted, and the funeral was in less than an hour. Alicia was standing in her bathroom, her black dress on, the shoes waiting with her purse by the door. But instead, she was standing over her toilet, holding a little plastic stick in her hand.

"What're you doing?" George asked her from the doorway, leaning on the frame as if exhausted. In a way, he was exhausted, emotionally at least. Losing Katie wasn't expected or wanted.

"Your mum was right." she asnwered, answering questions with something completely off topic had become habit.

"Well, that's unusual. What exactly was she right about?"

"I'm pregnant."

There was a quiet pause, and then George left his quiet stance and came up behind Alicia, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"You know that on any other day I'd be jumping up and down." George whispered into her ear, smelling her hair as he did so.

"I know." Alicia answered, gently swaying back and forth as they talked.

"Thank you, again, for sending out the invitations." Katie's dad, obviously not Kosey, thanked Alicia. He and Mrs. Bell, along with George and Alicia were standing outside the funeral home, about to go in.

"It was no problem." Alicia was surprised with herself, unlike everyone else, she wasn't crying. George was red faced and puffy eyed, standing off by himself. Mrs. Bell was repeatedly dabbing her eyes with a lace handkerchief, staring off into nothing, while her husband openly let the tears fall.

As the funeral began, only a few of Katie's 'wilder' friends came. Without even meaning to, the funeral was divided. Inside the large white room, with Katie in her coffin in the front, with row after row of chairs facing her, the people who knew Hogwarts Katie sat on the right, the Home Katie side on the left, when facing the coffin.

The funeral was requested to have as little magic as possible, for no one knew exactly how many muggles would show up.

Lee Jordan was the first one to come up to Alicia, who was standing up by the casket, not all that close, but closer than others seemed willing to come, and asked her _the _question:

"What really happened?"

"She overdosed." Alicia answered, her face serious yet calm.

"No, really. This is Katie, _Katie_! What really happened?"

"I told you, she overdosed."

Seven other people came up and went thorugh the same round of questions with Alicia. One of those people was Professor McGonagall. She was a bit ruder than Lee about the whole thing.

Oliver cut right to the chase when he questioned he, saying, "I don't believe you."

"Fine."

"Cut the crap, 'Lic, what actually happened to Bell?"

"She overdosed."

"You're a liar!" Oliver snapped, but then sat back down and caused no more trouble.

Frail little Fiona, who had come crashing into Alicia's world back at the twin's shop, was the first obviously problemed friend of Home Katie. Her black dress had snaps all down the front and seemed ready to fall off her rail of a body. She had black Converse that stuck out against her pale legs, her dress only reaching her knees.

She marched right up the aisle between the two sts of chairs, drawing the attention of the mourners wearing robes, and went to Alicia.

"Thanks," she started, glancing at Katie, "for the invite. And telling me...and stuff. It does mean a lot to me, and everyone else. They'll come, don't worry about that. We all appreciate you finding her, we really do...but I don't think any of us will know how to show it..." she had on too much eyeliner and it had already smeared with tears.

The girl then retreated to the Home Katie's side, sitting three rows back despite all the empty chairs around her, and slouched. Alicia could faintly hear Mrs. Weasley tuttering about the girl 'being flesh and bones' and 'not eating enough' and then warned Ginny not to let that happen to her grandchild. Ginny couldn't help but give a small smile as she nodded, holding Harry's hand as they sat.

A tall guy, almost as thin as Fiona came in soon after that, also wearing obviously secondhand clothes. He came in with several other people, but was the only one to walk up to the casket, rubbing his throat that whole time

"The first time I met Katie she punched me right there." he told Alicia, his index finger indicating the side of his neck. "Gods, we were so wasted. I'd do anything to have that night again..." he muttered, and then went back to his group.

People just kept coming after that, all late comers, and all sitting on the left side. Some had stories, like the guy who told about he was dating Katie for awhile, and then discovered she had slept with his father a few months prior to their meeting. The break up was mutual.

The only person who came to the side of Hogwarts and was rather late was Filch. He didn't walk up to see the body, but just sat down in the back in his ratty old suit and drank from his flask, ignoring the stares he got for the little tears that swam in his eyes but never fell. The loss of Mrs. Norris made him soft. For Filch, at least.

"Uh, hey," Jordan walked in, awkwardly trying not to look at all the people looking at him, wondering who he was. His clothes were a bit nicer than the others who sat on the left, but not much.

"Hi." Alicia softly greeted back.

"I've never been to such a nice funeral before. With real flowers, and everything." he muttered, trying to look like he hadn't been crying, even though close up, his nose was still pink.

"I never told you why Katie stopped coming to see you, did I?" Alicia asked as a response.

"You know?" Jordan looked up at this, his eyes intense.

"Look." she answered, pointing at the family that was coming in late. Emily and Ricky came in, guiding their small 'daughter.' She was the youngest person there, and her resemblence to her mother caused a rush of whispers on the right side.

Jordan stood up, walked straight to the girl, not blinking or jsut barely blinking, and the four of them spoke. It was an obviously awkward conversation at first, but it slowly relaxed. By the end of it, Kamryn was resting on her new found fathers lap in the front row of the left side, the parents she had always known sitting next to her. He was distracting her from the whispers on the right.

The large woman who was called Mum by countless children came in soon after that, seeming a bit more unnerved away from her rotting pink house. Her dress was plain black now, and most of the children weren't with her. She was just dragging the small rude boy Alicia had faced down the time she had met the woman.

"Got a babysitter fer all the others, but he'snot feelin' dat grate." she explained, standing next to Alicia as if she were her foster mum, too. The womans voice seemed to be suffering due to all the crying she'd obviously been doing.

"Would you like me to hold him?" Alicia asked, surprising herself. She hadn't expected to be so nice, but the little boy, with his clothes worn but too big, standing there, his eyes half closed as he fell asleep standing up, tugged at her maternal side.

"Shoore. Josh, go wit' de nice lady." Josh was evidently the boy, who raised his arms to oblige, but couldn't do much more.

Alicia scooped him up, and he flopped right on her. His face fit in the crook of her neck, and he soon fell asleep. He was heavy, but Alicia didn't want to wake him.

"I ne'er miss one o' me kids funerals. Been to too damn many." the woman muttered. She then excused herself, taking a seat on the left. Alicia remained holding the boy.

More people came up to Katie, saying their last words, but none seemed quite as interesting as those Alicia had already met.

"What'd I miss?" George whispered, walking up to Alicia from behind. He slipped in from a door that was almost unnoticable and didn't come from the lobby.

"Where've you been?" Alicia whispered back, noticing that he had Celia in his arms.

"I apparated in the laveratory...I dunno...I'm not too fond of the cat, but it only seemed right that she'd miss all this."

"Trade me." Alicia commanded, indicating that she wanted the cat, while George took Josh. George was confused, but didn't say anything.

With the cat in her arms, Alicia walked straight back, passing everyone, until she reached the back row of the right side.  
"Here," she started, placing Celia in the arms of a slightly startled Filch. "She likes windows, sunlight and being spoiled. She was Katie's. Her name is Celia."

Filch took the cat, looking at a loss for words, but somewhat pleased to have a cat, again. Celia didn't really react to any of what was going on around her. She was a cat, but a cat who was aware of what went on around her, no matter how strange it was. She took notice that Katie was never around.

"I know how to take care of a cat." Filch responded gruffly. Alicia smiled, expecting this type of answer.


	16. So This is the End

Here it is, kids. The last chapter. Thanks for all the reading and reviewing. I'm quite proud of this story and the reaction it's received.

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The room went into a lull, calming down to that of a normal funeral. The two worlds Katie lived in went to their seperate sides and left each other alone, finally. Alicia and George stayed near the middle, still holding Josh. 

Therefore, it was inevitable that something or someone would come and cause an uproar.

What surprised Alicia the most, was the happy face and cheefrul voice that brought in the uproar.

"'Ello, ther'." the acne scarred face of Gus chimed as he entered the room, back first as he pulled something in.

"Gus!" Alicia exclaimed, surprised at his appearance. Her voice wasn't happy, but not unhappy, it was just pure shock. "What are you doing here? I mean--no, what are you doing here?"

"I was to'd to bring one of the g'ests, o'course." he responded, coming in all the way, pulling a wheelchair with him.

In it sat the little frame of Mrs. Nochiviscoff, her knitting gone and her clothes clean. She had finally showered by the look of it, and her thin hair had been combed. What was really strange about her was the thick, silver handcuffs keeping her hands secured to the arm rests of the wheel chair.

"Why, hello!" she chirped, looking up at Alicia. The air in the room went thicker than ever. Everyone waited, less than patiently, to see who this small woman was.

"I'll j'st ro' 'er up front, then." Gus commented, noticing how many wide eyes were staring him down. He seemed a bit uncomftorable, which was odd seeing as he spent almost everyday in the most feared place the wizarding world. Alicia gave a small nod and stepped back.

"Is that who I think it is?" George whispered in her ear, looking unsettled.

"She looks better than before." Alicia answered, nodding. She shifted Josh to her other hip, his weight becoming more and more obvious.

"Why, hello! I haven't seen you since you were just a baby." Kelene commented once Gus had stopped rolling her. She was looking a terrified looking Kamryn. The woman's eyes might belong to a crazy person, but a crazy person who knows what her daughter looked like, and therefore, what her granddaughter looked like.

"Oh..." Kamryn muttered, scrunching even deeper into Jordan's lap. He obliged by wrapping a protective arm around the small girl. Emily and Rick both looked uncomftorable, wanting to protect Kamryn but well aware of the fact that they could do no more than what Jordan was doing.

If the focus of the room had not been entirely on the strange little woman chained to her wheelchair, someone might have noticed the scuffle on the other side of the room.

"No, Edward, no!" Mrs. Bell was pretty much shouting with frustration as she stood up, shaking her husband off her arm. "That--that _woman _knew about the baby! But she _didn't _tell me! ME! _I'm _her mum! ME! _I _took her in! But who does she turn to? An insane _creature _who doesn't know the first thing about children! But she chose _her _over ME!"

Once all the eyes had successfully been removed from Kelene to Mrs. Bell, a very pale looking Mr. Bell tried to usher his wife out of the room, which she would not oblige.

"For Merlin's sake, Abigail! This is our daughter's funeral! Why the _hell _are you choosing to break down here?" Mr. Bell demanded in outrage. His face had gone from pale to beet red, his body shaking with frustration. The couple had become oblivious to the shocked people around them, Oliver, his face stained with tears, right next to Mrs. Bell.

"Should we do something?" George whispered in Alicia's ear, taking Josh in his arms.

Alicia simply shook her head, she had seen something like this coming. She had not, however, seen Mrs. Bell as the one to crack.

"She's _my _daughter, not that _things_." Mrs. Bell growled, her teeth gritted and her eyes nothing but slits.

"You have no right to say that." Mr. Bell growled back, his right eye twitching while his left appeared bloodshot. "You were a horrid mother! I've told you that before, and I'll be more than happy to remind you later!"

_So that's what really drove her over the edge..._Alicia's mind whispered. It made sense. Katie would end up crazy, her mother openly against her, her father secretly hating her mother. Emily was a miracle, being as sane as she was.

"Someone do something!" a random voice hissed. There was no way of telling which side of the room the voice came from, much less if the voice was male or female.

"Someone should have done something a long time ago." the large foster mum cut in, her eyes sliding around the room, cutting each person like knives.

The question of whether or not the woman had the right to judge everyone else ran through the mind of Alicia. True, the woman had never claimed that she had done something that could have saved Katie, if it weren't for the fact that everyone else had intervened. Yet, at the same time, there was a chance that she could have.

It was all a very complicated matter that really seemed incomprehensible at the moment.

"Let's go home," the miracle that is George whispered into her ear, out of nowhere, and they went into the lavatory and apparated back home.

"George!" Alicia exclaimed, obviously startled after only a few moments at home, "We stole Josh!" she pointed out, pointing at the still sleeping boy Alicia had forgotten. despite the weight, on her hip.

The trademark, sheepish 'oops' grin graced George's face as Alicia found herself in a slight panic.

A little over a year later, a new book was published. It claimed to be based on a true story, and the reviewers found it to be a pleasant surprise, especially since it was written by a children's book author.

The Truth About Kacie Ring

by A.S.Weasley

For:

The real Kacie Ring, a dear friend I will always love

Dedicated to:

My beautiful family, the men of my life, George and Josh, and my

lovely little girls, Kaitlyn and Kassie, the second generation

of the Red Haired Wonder Twins.


End file.
